Research Under The Microscope Series

The aim of “Research Under The Microscope” series is to translate research papers that are quite often technically complicated, extremely lengthy and contain large amounts of data into simple everyday language making it quicker and easier to understand the research findings.

What is the problem and what is known so far?

Sarcopenia is an age-related issue impacting a person’s muscle health. Sarcopenia is associated with decreased muscle mass, decreased strength, and reduced physical performance.

Generally, sarcopenia can affect up to 22% of adults over the age of 65 years. It can have a significant impact on a person’s overall quality of life with an increased risk of osteoporosis and bone fragility, a decrease in overall bone strength and an increase in fall risk leading to fractures. Also, sarcopenia is associated with elevated inflammatory markers, which in turn has a further negative impact on muscle health by reducing protein metabolism

What is the background to this research?

Current evidence indicates that creatine supplementation has an anti-sarcopenia effect and the potential to preserve bone health. This research examined the impact and biological mechanisms that creatine had on aging adults in groups that did and did not undergo resistance training.

Additionally, the researchers reviewed the evidence to determine if creatine had any relationship to improving bone health, decreasing the risk of falls, anti-inflammatory effect, and the safety of supplementation.

Who was studied in this research?

The focus was primarily on aging adults.

How was the research performed?

The researchers reviewed the latest clinical evidence including cell, animal, and human studies regarding the efficacy of creatine supplementation on aging muscle and bone health.

What did the study researchers find?

Creatine increased muscle mass, strength and physical performance in patient groups that did and did not perform resistance training.

The results were more pronounced in those that did resistance training. The effects of creatine on bone health were variable, however, initial indicators suggested it could potentially improve overall bone health. There were also indications of anti-inflammatory properties by acting as an antioxidant.

Overall creatine had a positive effect on both muscle mass and the potential to improve bone health, together this may lead to an overall reduction in the risk of falls leading to fractures.

No evidence of creatine toxicity was reported.

Clinical Notes:

• Sarcopenia is a disease that is multifactorial and is characterised by the gradual but progressive loss of muscle mass in aging adults.
• The causes of sarcopenia include:
  – Muscle fibre morphological changes.
  – Decreases in neuromuscular activity.
  – Protein kinetics changes.
  – ­Endocrinology changes.
  – Inflammation.
• The loss of muscle mass observed in sarcopenia is accompanied by a decrease in overall strength and physical performance has a significant impact on a person’s quality of life.
• Reduced bone strength and mass are quite often accompanied by a diagnosis of sarcopenia increasing the overall risk of falls and fractures.
• Accumulating research supports that for older adults supplementing with the amino acid creatine can help prevent sarcopenia by maintaining muscle health due to increasing muscle mass, increasing muscle strength (with or without resistance training), and attenuating the loss of bone mineral density and decreasing the risk of falls overall.
• Additionally, initial indications are that creatine may also act as a potent anti-inflammatory agent for muscular health by acting as an antioxidant to oxidative stress.
  Creatine supplementation is low risk and safe to use in older adults.
• In older adults that are indicated for additional creatine supplementation, the following guidelines are suggested based on previous clinical research:
  

  Dose	Frequency	Duration
  2 grams	Twice Daily	8 weeks is the minimum duration for any clinical efficacy in muscle mass improvement.

What You Can Do Now

If you need assistance, changes to your diet or nutrition to manage a health condition should only be undertaken with advice from a suitably qualified nutritional health professional.

This factsheet is for general information only.

Please contact me to discuss your individual needs.

References:

1. Candow, Darren G., Scott C. Forbes, Philip D. Chilibeck, Stephen M. Cornish, Jose Antonio, and Richard B. Kreider. 2019. ‘Effectiveness of Creatine Supplementation on Aging Muscle and Bone: Focus on Falls Prevention and Inflammation’. Journal of Clinical Medicine 8 (4): 488. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8040488.